The AVL solution must be scalable to accommodate the current Police fleet of 3,100 vehicles and allow for potential future growth of up to 5,000 vehicles.

Police have told prospective vendors that the department currently only has budget approved to undertake a selection and trial process for the solution. However, once the RPF process is complete, they intend to put forward a business case to fund a rollout of the solution to the entire fleet. If funding is approved for a full rollout, a contract would be awarded to the winner of the current RFP.

Interested vendors need to register their intention to bid by November 11. The RFP closes on December 21.

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A cluster of territorial authorities in the deep south is seeking vendor input as it works towards developing an IT share services platform.

The Southland Council Consortium (SCC) has been formed by the Clutha District Council, Environment Southland, Invercargill City Council and Southland District Council.

SCC is issuing two requests for information aimed at scoping the market ahead of developing and IT shared services strategy.

The first RFI, related to IT shared services connectivity, was put out last week and a second, for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), is due to be released next week.

The consortium says a shared services platform will deliver tangible benefits to each council, above and beyond what could be realised by each council working alone.

As the rollout of the Government’s Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) initiative gains pace, Ericsson and Huawei have each picked up significant contracts with two of the major network builders.

Ericsson has signed an agreement with Chorus, which is responsible for building about 70 percent of the UFB network, to supply air-blown fibre optic-cable systems.

Under the deal, Ericsson will supply components of its Ribbonet ABF system, which includes fibre cables, microduct, tools and all related accessories.

Meanwhile, Huawei New Zealand has been selected to provide fibre-to-the-home access network technology as part of WEL Networks’ involvement in the UFB build, which covers parts of the central North Island.

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Gen-i has won a multi-million dollar deal to provide data centre facilities for Westpac. The Telecom subsidiary will design, deliver and support the new data centre, to be located at its Tier 3 facility in Auckland and due to go live in early 2012.